Suzuka 2009

[Brogan]

It's a very wet first practice.

Timo Glock is apparently unwell which fortunately gives Toyota's Japanese test driver, Kamui Kobayashi, the chance to get some laps in.
What a coincidence...

 

[McZiderRed]

A very wet P2, as well... The highlight of the session was the little paper boat, sent sailing down the river of water flowing down the pit lane.

The cars did a few laps at the end (not the Brawns, though). Not enough wet weather tyres.

 

[Brogan]

Here are the results in case anyone's interested:

P1

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps

 1.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:40.356           24

 2.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:40.648 + 0.292   18

 3.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:40.806 + 0.450   14

 4.  Fisichella    Ferrari              (B)  1:40.985 + 0.629   27

 5.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:41.421 + 1.065   26

 6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:41.443 + 1.087   15

 7.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:41.532 + 1.176   22

 8.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:41.577 + 1.221   25

 9.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:41.821 + 1.465   18

10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:42.188 + 1.832   20

11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:42.332 + 1.976   10

12.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:42.475 + 2.119   15

13.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:42.657 + 2.301   13

14.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:42.667 + 2.311   27

15.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:42.833 + 2.477   16

16.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:42.977 + 2.621   14

17.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:43.218 + 2.862   11

18.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:43.318 + 2.962   17

19.  Kobayashi     Toyota               (B)  1:43.407 + 3.051   16

20.  Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:43.572 + 3.216   22

P2

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps

 1.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:47.261            5

 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:47.923  + 0.662   6

 3.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:47.931  + 0.670   4

 4.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:47.983  + 0.722   5

 5.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:48.058  + 0.797   8

 6.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:48.691  + 1.430   9

 7.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:48.693  + 1.432   5

 8.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:48.737  + 1.476   6

 9.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:48.802  + 1.541  11

10.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:48.861  + 1.600   6

11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:48.886  + 1.625   4

12.  Kobayashi    Toyota                (B)  1:49.054  + 1.793   7

13.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:49.382  + 2.121   7

14.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:49.405  + 2.144   6

15.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:49.553  + 2.292   5

16.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:49.872  + 2.611   7

17.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:50.179  + 2.918   9

18.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  No time

19.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  No time

20.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  No time

 

[bogaTYR]

thanks bro

if i understand properly and this was a training not on a circuit but in a river, then luizzi did great. sutil and vettel as can be expected in these conditions.

 

[Brogan]

Yes, it was a fairly wet session.

Thanks to the silly tyre rules, a lot of the teams chose not to do much running as they only have a limited number of sets which have to last practice, qualifying and race.

For the life of me I can't see how this makes racing safer but there you go.

 

[McZiderRed]

I'm considering trying to get up for P3. I was going to get up for Qualifying anyway, at 5.00am, so P3 starting at 3.00am isn't that much different, is it?!

Suzuka doesn't come round often of late , so I'm going to have to make the most of this weekend.... Plus I'm a glutton for punishment!

And it had better be dry tomorrow! Land of the rising sun? Yeah right.

So, who's gonna get pole tomorrow? I'm sticking my neck out and saying Sutil. Flat out round 130R, use the power of the Mercedes engine, job done. It'll be interesting to see where the Brawns end up, after no running in P2. And then there's the Red Bulls.

Just have to bide me time till tomorrow now.

 

[Brogan]

I'll be around for Qualy but not P3.
I need those extra few hours at my age

Besides, I'm going for a run tomorrow and if I get up at 3 that won't be happening

 

[bogaTYR]

here is the bridgestone report. apparently the intermediate lasts for 20 laps or so.


Japanese GP: Practice notes - Bridgestone
02/10/2009
Bridgestone's intermediate tyre was the fastest rubber on Formula One's return to the challenging and technical Suzuka Circuit as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest lap on the first day of the Japanese Grand Prix.

The morning practice, when Kovalainen set his time, took place on a wet but drying circuit. In the afternoon, continuous rain meant that only the final 30 minutes saw timed laps and only Bridgestone's wet tyre was used. Adrian Sutil (Force India F1 Team) was the fastest driver. Not all drivers completed timed laps.

What was significant about today's running?
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development: "Today we have learnt that our latest specification intermediate tyre works very well here. This tyre stood up well for around 20 laps when used on a drying track. The rain through most of the second session meant no running took place for the first hour. This makes the weekend very interesting as the teams have no data from the dry tyres today."

How do you expect the allocation to work over the weekend?
HH: "Any data learnt from this morning using the wet and intermediate tyres will be lost in translation for using the dry tyres if the weather is better tomorrow. If it is wet then we will have a very interesting day as the grid could be determined by a wet qualifying session. If it is dry it will also be very interesting as the teams will have to learn the hard and soft tyre performance with only limited track time. This gives the teams a big challenge, not just for qualifying but also for Sunday's race."

 

[McZiderRed]

Here are the times from this morning's P3. Blue sky and the sun was out, so everyone was cramming all their setup runs into the 1 hour session...

P3

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps

 1.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:31.709           24

 2.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:31.771 + 0.062   26

 3.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:32.343 + 0.634   28

 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:32.414 + 0.705   19

 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:32.445 + 0.736   26

 6.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:32.467 + 0.758   25

 7.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:32.488 + 0.779   24

 8.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:32.546 + 0.837   22

 9.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:32.668 + 0.959   25

10.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:32.689 + 0.980   20

11.  Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:32.717 + 1.008   25

12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:32.736 + 1.027   21

13.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:32.742 + 1.033   21

14.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:32.749 + 1.040   26

15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:32.752 + 1.043   23

16.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:32.789 + 1.080   19

17.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:32.848 + 1.139   20

18.  Fisichella    Ferrari              (B)  1:32.878 + 1.169   26

19.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:32.930 + 1.221   15

20.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:33.167 + 1.458   18

All timing unofficial

Timing info courtesy of Autosport.com

 

[Brogan]

Looks like it could be a dry qualifying session then

Oh dear, just seen that Mark Webber trashed his car in P3 and won't be participating in qualifying.
His car needs to be rebuilt using a new chassis and he will start from the pit lane tomorrow.

 

[Brogan]

Sébastien Buemi went off at the same place as Mark Webber and hit the barriers.
He managed to keep the car going, get out of the gravel trap, get back to the pits and replace his broken rear wing and got through to Q2

An interesting stat'.

In Q1, the gap from P10 to P15 was 1/10th of a second.
Amazing really when you consider the circuit is over 5km in length and all the cars are different.

 

[Brogan]

Red flag!

Jaime Alguersuari goes off at the same corner (the Degner Curve) in Q2 and totals his car.

 

[Brogan]

Another red flag!

Timo Glock goes off at the last corner and embeds his car into the barrier.

With less than 8 minutes left in the session, only 2 drivers have managed to do flying laps.

 

[Brogan]

Button and Barrichello manage to get through to Q1 despite setting their fastest (and only) time through a yellow flag sector after Buemi hit the barrier.

Strictly speaking, isn't it against the rules to set your fasest sector time through a yellow flag zone?
If so, even though it was their only time then the 2 Brawn times should have been scrubbed?

 

[Brogan]

Yet another red flag in Q3!

Heikki Kovalainen goes off at the same corner and is straight into the barriers.

Final results.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3      

 1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:30.883  1:30.341  1:32.160

 2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:31.063  1:30.737  1:32.220

 3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:30.917  1:30.627  1:32.395

 4.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:31.386  1:31.222  1:32.466

 5.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:31.272  1:31.055  1:32.660

 6.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:31.501  1:31.260  1:32.945

 7.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:31.041  1:30.880  1:32.962

 8.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:31.228  1:31.052  1:32.980

 9.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:31.499  1:31.223

10.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:31.196  1:31.103 

11.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:31.286  1:31.482

12.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:31.401  1:31.638

13.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:31.417  1:32.341

14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:31.550

15.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:31.571

16.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:31.704

17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:31.718

18.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:32.073

19.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:32.087

20.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)

 

[bogaTYR]

six drivers called to the stewards for incidents: both brawns, both bmws, alonso, sutil

All for speeding in a yellow flag zone. Sutil has the additional charge of blocking.

 

[Brogan]

Oh dear.

This could mean lots of penalties and grid drops.

 

[bogaTYR]

a bit more information has appeared:

Button, Barichello, Sutil and Heidfeld summoned for best lap times under a yellow flag. Alonso and Kubica summoned for overtaking Buemi under a yellow flag. that last one seems logical cos buemi was kinda in the fences by then.

 

[bogaTYR]

make that 7 drivers

buemi has been summoned too

 

[Brogan]

Brawn only have themselves to blame.

They left it so late that the drivers only had the chance to do 1 flying lap.

There had already been 2 red flags so they should have been out straight away instead of hanging around in the pits.
Terrible strategy from Brawn.

I guess Buemi has been summoned for driving a damaged car extremely slowly around the track.
Very dangerous.